Redevelopment Aims to Strengthen Economy

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Even with an unstable economy in the Fort Smith area, one developer is making a large investment in the housing market. Shire, Inc. is currently building a new neighborhood at Chaffee Crossing.

The new development, Stoneshire at Chaffee Crossing, will be beneficial to the already growing community according to Ivy Owen, the executive director at Chaffee Crossing.

“It will be an up-end upscale housing development,” Owen said. “It’ll be based on an Old English theme so there will be a lot of ivy and brick in the entrance, some stained glass. It’s all going to be a beautiful, beautiful single family residence development.”

The 93 homes will be built in the middle of Chaffee Crossing connecting the neighborhood to Ben Geren Park and the edge of Stick Lake. The developers say they’re excited about the potential the neighborhood will bring to the area.

“We’ve built houses here for 20 years and so we kind of have our hand on the pulse of the market,” Rocky Walker, one of the developers, said. “So we do all the research, we look at what’s available and what’s needed. We crunch all of the numbers and see what the bank will let us do. We see what the market’s going to do and then we make an educated guess from there.”

Construction has already started at Stoneshire. Developers said they plan to start working on the houses in June or July. They expect the homes will be complete sometime this fall.

Stoneshire is one of three residential projects currently in the works at Chaffee Crossing. Both the Reserve Apartments and Liberty Rose Apartments are also in the development stage.